Geyman Steps

Most weekends the boys and I go for a ride on my bicycle to run errands or just to grab some street food or a snack. At any rate, it is a great time for the guys to get out of the house and have some male bonding. Today Carmen needed some meat from the butcher which is down the road from us. Unfortunately, the camera turned off shortly before the butcher, but we got some awesome non-stop narration from Jason on the way there. He was pretty proud to be the cameraman!

Above is a short video about what the boys and girls have been up to. Life sure is interesting with these guys! Tivoli, caught in the act of escaping. She is very proud of herself because she managed to reach up and undo the latch above her head.  They get dirty so fast out here. Soon they will be walking. That should at least save their knees. Nothing like bananas! The past two weeks have been very full with MAF standardization. This involved ground courses and flights in order to learn to operate with MAF International procedures. My last MAF standardization flight took us to a few airfields which we fly into regularly. After crossing the escarpment, which is a plateau dividing very dry land and mountains covered in rainforest, we had a slight diversion to avoid thousands of flamingos which had taken flight over the rainforest next to Lake Manyara. One of those times I wish I had brought my camera! One of the three airstrips we flew int...

I was in the process of writing a little bit about what I have been up to when the boys came running to us with a baby tortoise. It was a big distraction and interesting enough to take precedence over my previous thoughts.  From a little bit of research, this is a Sulcata Tortoise or also called an African Spurred Tortoise. They are the third-largest species in the world and live up to 100 years. Males reach around 200 pounds (90 kg) and females 90-100 pounds (45 kg). Of course, this one is not yet fully grown :) The boys found it out by a dripping spigot. An interesting fact is that they are very susceptible to dying from dehydration up until they are two years old. They have to soak in shallow water to hydrate their skin and shell.  Size and rate of growth depends mostly on the environment they live in. Based on what we read, it seems this little guy might be less than a year old. The boys were fascinated with the tur...

A picture is worth a thousand words. Jason, this is only the beginning. Frozen fruit popsicles for the first time. You see the baby gate on the left? Ya, someone left it open. They are supposed to be on the other side... At least they are cute about it The other night Carmen and I were on a night stroll when we heard something shuffling around in the bushes. Upon discovering the source of the noise to be a kurunguyeye (hedgehog) I attempted to reach my arm into the thorn bush to take a snapshot with my phone. This little guy, however, was not very photogenic or helpful.  Now, I will take a moment to say that hedgehogs are one of Carmen's favourite animals. In fact, at one point while living in Texas she was in the process of obtaining one as a pet until we were informed of the no-pet policy in our apartment. Bummer. Anyway, as you may imagine, we were both filled with tingly feelings of wonder at the beauty of cute and cu...

It is about time we updated pictures of the children. The girls are growing and changing so fast! Every day they learn new things and get faster at crawling. Tivoli says Mama regularly and said Dada for the first time the other day! Esther is seriously addicted to her fingers and Tivoli decided a pacifier is a wonderful thing. They are nine months now. Tivoli (yellow headband)  Esther (purple headband) Many struggles over who gets which toy occur every day... And usually the result is one happy baby and one sad baby. Tivoli is almost always happy, steady, and consistent. However, she loves to explore and escapes every time the door is left open. She really likes the dogs who are probably five times her size and like to lick her face. Unfortunately, her explorations outside usually end with a very happy but filthy baby.  Well, this is 100% Esther when we say smile. She loves to snuffle her nose at you and once she is comfortable with som...

This week Silas had his 5th birthday. We asked him if he wanted to have his cake at his school or at home. Of course, there was no doubt in his mind what he wanted. Silas thrives on friends and what better way to have a birthday than with as many friends as possible.  Carmen was able to catch most of it on video. Just as a disclaimer, I don't think this is a traditional Tanzanian birthday as the preschool is run by a British lady and there is a lot of English. We actually managed to find a game.  And an umbrella from Dinah! Just like the one she gave Jason for his birthday, only this time green. On another note, Jason received a letter from great grandparents for his birthday a few weeks ago. Do you notice anything suspicious about this letter? Notice the small cut on the bottom which was likely used to check if there was anything valuable to be had inside...

Born April 12, 2014, in Libby, Montana. Jason Timothy - Healed to Honor God One day old back in Idaho First birthday  Second birthday in Waxhaw, North Carolina He was so excited for his birthday (which is what he calls cake)! He begged to be the one to cut it... it's a butter knife.  "How old are you now?!?" "Two? Really?" "Yep! You are three!" His Dinah girl (as he calls her) helped make his birthday extra special by making him a gluten/ dairy free lemon coconut cake! With the rainy season upon us, this gift along with his new crocs will come in handy quite often :)